


Addict With A Pen

by alltheglowingeyes



Series: PJO/HoO/ToA One Shots [20]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Artist Nico di Angelo, Gen, Nico di Angelo is Bad at Feelings, Nightmares, This kinda sucks, Will Solace is a Ball of Sunshine, based on nico keeping an art journal for his nightmares, the ending is a lil trash but oop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:07:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26572708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alltheglowingeyes/pseuds/alltheglowingeyes
Summary: When Nico's nightmares keep him up, he picks up a pen and begins to sketch.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo & Will Solace
Series: PJO/HoO/ToA One Shots [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1861492
Comments: 9
Kudos: 79





	Addict With A Pen

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from anon user ItsJustMe62623:  
> "I was thinking that Nico is an excellent artist or smthn, and instead of a diary he keeps a sketchbook. Whenever he has nightmares (I was thinking tartarus, but that's your choice!), he draws them out. *Cue Will finding the sketchbook*"
> 
> Thank you (once again) for a great prompt! I'm NGL, I think the ending of this fic is a little rough; I kind of lost my energy to write halfway through (due to the impending dread of school this week ew), but I really wanted to finish it up.
> 
> The title of the fic is based on the Twenty One Pilots song of the same name because apparently I only know how to title my fics with song names.
> 
> This story is also posted on fanfiction.net under the same username.
> 
> Enjoy! :)
> 
> \- alltheglowingeyes

Nico glanced around the Hades Cabin, feeling a twinge of frustration. He was the only full-time inhabitant of the cabin, and yet the mess rivaled that of the Hermes Cabin.

The son of Hades genuinely didn’t know how it happened; he did his best to clean the cabin often. But the past few days, between nightmares and a constant state of lethargy, he found himself slowly allowing the mess around him to pile up.

His brain hurt just thinking about trying to clean up the mess around him in time for cabin inspections. He was considering various persuasive tactics to convince the inspectors to give him at least a 3 ( _it was Piper and Lou Ellen; he was pretty sure he could work with that_ ), when he heard a knock on the door of the cabin.

Nico sighed, making his way through the cluttered floors of his cabin. The moment he opened the door, he blurted out his pre-made excuse.

“The Hermes Cabin did this. It’s sabotage, I swear; they just want me to get stable duties or something. I implore you guys to keep that in mind when-”

He was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. Nico took a second to actually see who was in front of him, feeling heat rush to his face as he made eye contact with an amused-looking Will Solace. He did his best to force down a blush, allowing a glare to settle on his face instead.

“Solace. Don’t you have a cabin to clean right now?”

Will grinned at Nico, looking obnoxiously smug. “Nah. I just had to clean up my bed and the desk. Aimee is really particular about keeping things in the cabin organized, so it wasn’t too bad. Now, _you_ on the other hand, my friend,” he peered over Nico’s shoulder as the shorter boy failed miserably at blocking his view. “You’ve got some cleaning to do. Want some help?”

Nico glared harder at Will, who simply stared back unflinchingly. After a few seconds, Nico lost any energy to fight and stepped to the side, allowing Will to enter the cabin. While Will looked around the cabin, Nico glanced to make sure no one had seen the son of Apollo enter and tried to gauge how much time he had before Piper and Lou Ellen made their way to the Hades Cabin, before closing the door behind him.

Will picked up a bright blue hoodie from the floor of the cabin, raising an eyebrow at the son of Hades. “Didn’t take you for a colour guy.”

Nico glowered, grabbing the hoodie and throwing it on his bed. “I’m not. Percy decided that I get the honour of owning all his hand-me-downs.”

Will frowned slightly, something flashing in his eyes at the mention of Percy. However, it quickly faded as he nodded. “Right, right. Let’s get started on cleaning.” He squinted as his eyes scanned the cabin, “You start with the clothes on the floor, I’ll clear your desk over there. Sounds good?”

Nico sighed. He didn’t want to do this, but Will’s tone made it clear there was no option as he nodded along slowly, dragging his feet while he began picking up some of the miscellaneous shit on his floor.

Nico had barely managed to fold two pairs of jeans and put away a hat when he heard Will clear his throat. He sighed in annoyance and turned around, only to drop the socks in his arms in shock.

Will was holding a medium-sized blue composition notebook. The front cover read in angry sharpie print _Property of Nico di Angelo - Open and I’ll send you to the Field of Punishment_. And yet, Will’s first question was “Did you draw all of this?”

Nico stalked over to the son of Apollo, snatching the book out of his hands. “ _This_ , Solace, is not for your viewing pleasure. If you wanted to come in here just to snoop around, you should have told me so I could have shoved my sword right up your-”

“Hey, whoa,” Will interrupted quickly. “I wasn’t trying to snoop! It was open and I just caught sight of one of the sketches. I didn’t flip through or anything, and I really am here to help you out, ok? I swear on the River Styx.”

Thunder boomed in the distance as Nico eyes Will carefully, allowing some of the tension to escape his shoulders. Silence fell between the two of them before Will offered shyly, “If that was your art, it’s breathtaking.”

Nico tried for a scowl, but failed miserably. Instead, he averted his gaze, thinking for a few seconds. “You probably just saw one of the better pages.”

Will frowned, knitting his brows in confusion. “I’m sure it’s all great. You’ve got a really nice style; a little choppy but in a-”

“That’s not what I meant,” Nico grumbled, raking a hand through his disheveled hair. Then, before he could chicken out, he shoved the notebook back into Will’s hands.

Will blinked, staring at him in confusion as Nico scowled. “Do I really have to spell it all out for you? I’m giving you permission to look through.”

Will hesitated for a moment before moving to Nico’s bed, taking a seat on the edge. He glanced at Nico, as if waiting for him to join him, but Nico shook his head. He didn’t want to look at the contents of it. In fact, he realized as Will started flipping through the pages that he didn’t need to see it to know what the son of Apollo was looking at.

Nico had gotten the notebook after the battle with Gaea from the Camp store. He had always been fond of art as a form of expression, but between living on the streets and nearly dying every day, he hadn’t had much time to hone in on his skills or anything. When the war had ended, he figured he could use the notebook to make some sketches for fun. However, after a week of continuous and unrelenting art block, he had tossed the notebook into a drawer and figured it could be a present for Hazel’s next birthday.

Then, the nightmares started. 

He knew it was going to happen; he had plenty of nightmares before and during the war, but they only got worse after everything that happened on the quest. Between Tarturus, the jar, and the encounter with Croatia, he had enough on his mind to drive him near insane every night. 

One night when he woke up, he couldn’t quite remember what happened. It was Tarturus, but the details felt so hazy, it scared him. His emotions overwhelmed him as he fumbled for the notebook and a random half-dried pen, furiously sketching whatever he could on the lined pages.

It became a habit of sorts as he turned the notebook into his unofficial nightmare notebook. Putting the scenes and experiences on paper made him feel, if only for a moment, that none of it was real. That maybe it was all just a crazy design he created in his mind. The pages held a variety of art, some detailed pencil sketches of people or places he saw and some messy and angry pen scribbles that felt entirely representative of how he was feeling.

The notebook was almost full, and Nico had found himself using any available blank space that he could. He felt slightly embarrassed and anxious as he heard Will flipping through. It made him feel vulnerable, his darkest memories on full display for the son of Apollo. And while he trusted Will enough to know he would be supportive, there was still an inkling of doubt in his mind that the older boy would react poorly.

When he heard Will set down the notebook, Nico immediately began bustling around the cabin, picking up clothes strewn across the floor. As he turned around to toss them in the closet, he came face-to-face with Will. Before he could say anything, Will pulled him into a cautious but tight embrace.

Nico was stiff at first, resisting the urge to kick in the older boy’s knees and run away. However, after a few seconds, he felt himself slightly melting into Will’s warm embrace. After a few seconds, the two pulled away as Nico studied Will’s expression.

Will stared right back, his eyes warm with emotion. “First of all, your art is beautiful, Nico. You've got some real talent. Thank you for letting me see it. I… I get if you don’t want to talk about any of _that_ right now, but I want you to know that I’m here for you if you need to… to verbalize what happened.”

Nico felt a lump form in his throat. He knew he had built a decent support system around him over the past few months. He had friends now, like Jason, Percy, Annabeth, and Will, of course. But after showing something that was so personal to Will, that support meant even more. 

Nico forced himself to not get too outwardly emotional, nodding slowly. “Yeah… um, thanks. I think- maybe that’s a conversation for another time. We still have some cleaning to do.”

Will smiled softly, “That we do. I can practically _hear_ Lou Ellen getting ready to bust the door down and snoop around.”

Nico snorted as the two of them got to work on clearing the rest of the cabin. By the time Lou Ellen and Piper arrived at the Hades Cabin, the cabin was clean enough to pass with a 4 and Will was nowhere in sight ( _the idiot chose to dive out of the fucking window; however, Nico checked on him later and thankfully the son of Apollo only had a nasty bruise on his knee_ ). Nico couldn’t find it in himself to talk about the things he had seen or his art, and thankfully Will didn’t press him for information. But when Nico woke up to knocking on his door, only to find a small bag with a leather-bound art journal, he knew that Will was in his corner when he was ready to talk.

**Author's Note:**

> Rip, I hope the ending was passable at least. I think I rushed it a bit, but oh well.
> 
> Also kinda slowly pining over someone and dying so I'm immersing myself into more Solangelo writing and fics to ignore feelings thank you <3
> 
> But ignoring t h a t, please leave me any headcanons/requests. I'll be more than happy to write them up ASAP. Otherwise, any feedback is greatly appreciated.
> 
> You can follow me on my tumblr @alltheglowingeyess for updates on multichapter fics/a compiled list of my one-shots/random Riordanverse shit, or to just say hi. :)


End file.
